80 per cent of under 25-year-olds Tweet and Facebook while watching TV

Do you find yourself sitting in front of the television checking your Twitter and Facebook status updates? Then you’re not alone. And, better still, it probably means you’re acting like someone that’s a lot younger too.

The way in which people watch television is rapidly changing, according to a new study of UK mobile internet users below the age of 25 conducted by Digital Clarity - a specialist Digital Marketing Agency in the UK.

“80 per cent of those surveyed use a mobile device to communicate with friends while watching TV, with 72 per cent using Twitter, Facebook or mobile applications to actively comment on shows as they are watching them,” the company claims, after it polled over 1,300 people under 25 from a cross section of the UK.

Dubbed "Social TV", a joint Nielsen and Yahoo study late last year found that the trend is already well established in the US, with over 86 per cent of mobile Internet users choosing to communicate with each other in real-time during broadcasts.

Now "second screening", as it is referred to in the States, has become common place in the UK too.

The UK study found that 34 per cent described the trend as "fun", 32 per cent said it made television "more interesting", with 42 per cent mentioning the "community" aspect of "Social TV".

The survey discovered that the most common way to communicate is to use Twitter (72 per cent). Facebook was next popular (56 per cent) and then mobile applications (34 per cent). 62 per cent of social TV users like a combination of all three.

Certain shows such as X-Factor, Skins, Glee, as well as the soaps Coronation Street and Eastenders, are particularly popular in the UK, generating very high Twitter traffic and Facebook messages as they are broadcast.

What shows do you Tweet or Facebook about? Let us know in the comments below

Stuart has been a tech journalist since 1998 and written for a number of publications around the world. Regularly turning up on television, radio and in newspapers, Stuart has played with virtually every gadget available.